Eye movement control in reading and the E-Z Reader model

This chapter first reviews the important empirical facts about eye-movement control in reading. The first section of the chapter briefly describes the basic characteristics of eye movements during reading and then discusses the issue of the perceptual span. It then discusses relevant data concerning the issue of where to look next in reading, followed by the data on when to move the eyes. After discussing these two important eyemovement decisions, it discusses the issues of refixations and of word skipping. Two controversial issues, one related to fixation durations prior to word skipping and one related to so-called parafoveal-on-foveal effects, are also discussed. The remainder of the chapter describes the details of the E-Z Reader model and some of the controversies it has generated. The chapter ends by discussing some recent simulations dealing with preview effects.